Editorial

By Sherly Isaac

Once a very reputed old man of one city walked in to a police station. The police officer stood up in respect to receive him. The old man burst into tears and showing both his hands he asked the police officer to handcuff him. Why? The stunned and shocked police officer asked with great respect. The reputed man said, “I stole these goods and money from where I was working fifty years back. Please take these and also arrest me and put me in prison.” The police officer asked in amazement, “sir, why now? This is now a fifty years old story?” The old man sobbed bitterly and replied, “I committed theft and when the police started searching for the thief, I left that place and journeyed to a far away place and finally came to this city. I changed my identity, started my own business and became a very successful man in this city. Now no one knows who I am, yet my guilt is killing me. The guilt is like a heavy burden to me. I cannot bear this burden anymore. Please help me, please…”, he pleaded with the police officer.

The guilt of sin followed this old man throughout all his life. Though he changed everything, his identity, his location and his job and pretended as if he was a new man, yet he could not shed off his old self. His old self was constantly stirring his life and was stealing away all his joy and peace. This is what happens when we sin. Our sins follow us and as the Bible says, “be sure your sin will find you out”(Num 32:23).

There was another man in the Bible named Judas who happened to be one of the disciples of Jesus. Bible talks about him that he was a thief and he constantly stole money from the money box as we read in John 12:4-6, “Then one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, who would betray Him, said, Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put in it.”

Judas who was so close to Jesus, who walked with the creator for three and half years yet missed the great opportunity to know Him and to become like Him as He is righteous. Judas loved the world more than the creator. His eyes were always after money rather than being fixed on God. His love for money became a snare for him and finally it became the reason of his doom. He went to the chief priests with a plan to betray Jesus, and when they offered him money it appeared to be the sweetest plan to him. Just for thirty pieces of silver he betrayed Jesus. But what did he get out of it? Bible says of the tragic end of his life in Mat 27:3-5, “Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? You see to it!" Then he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed, and went and hanged himself.”

Judas, the greedy man died foolishly because his eyes were on money instead of the creator. Paul the apostle writes in 1 Tim 6:10, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

The second mistake he committed was that he went back to the chief priests and tried to repent of sins before them instead of repenting before Jesus. Had he repented for his sins at the feet of Jesus, his story might have been different today.

My friend, we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23), but the key is to humble ourselves before God and to repent from our sins. He promised in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Bible also tells us in 1 John 1:8, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

So with all humbleness let us come to the throne of Grace and confess our sins before Him and ask for forgiveness. He will surely forgive and forget your sins and give you a new life.

If you Obey, Nothing will be Impossible for you!

By Sherly Isaac

Deu 11:22-25, "For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do; to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him; then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to the Western Sea, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.”

Deuteronomy is the book through which Moses was trying to prepare the people for possessing the Promised Land. He again and again cautions the people that they should carefully observe the commandments of God for their betterment and for their bright future. He said that if they obeyed God, blessings and prosperity will come in their lives and otherwise God’s wroth and curse will be their portion. In those days giants lived in that land. It was not possible for ordinary people to dispossess them. It was impossible to fight and win that battle. But God promised to give them victory over great and mighty people whose cities were great and fortified up to heaven as we read in Deu 9:1-3, "Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, 'Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?' Therefore understand today that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.”

It is important to obey God even today to gain victory in our lives. If we want to be successful in our lives, if we want to excel in our lives, we need to obey God and do what He wants us to do. By obeying God we can face giants in our lives with boldness and will be able to defeat them by the mighty power of God. He promised to give victory over our rivals and enemies.

Again we read in Deu 8:1, "Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers.”

Again we read in Deu 15:5-6, "only if you carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe with care all these commandments which I command you today. For the LORD your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.”

If we obey God He will allow us to have such wealth and riches so that we can lend to many nations and reign over many nations. Think about it, if you are capable of lending to many nations it means how much wealthy you should be? I am not very good in math and big number makes my head spin. So I am not going to calculate it but it does not need any brainier to know that it will work out to a huge amount of money.

These are the blessings waiting for those who obey God. Jesus also said in Mat 6:31-33, “Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

So seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and He will add blessings after blessings in our lives.

Standing in the Gap - Fasting prayer on 8th Dec.. 2015

As the Bible says in Ezekiel 22:30 "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it." And also the Bible says in Numbers 16:48, "And he (Aaron) stood between the dead and the living; so the plague was stopped." We have fasting prayer every second Tuesday of each month. Our next fasting prayer meeting will be conducted on 16th Nov. 2015

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Through the Valley of Death

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